Concert Review: Whitesnake At The Nashville Municiple Auditorium, 7/22/2009

Whitesnake slithered into town tonight with their Good To Be Bad tour, which has been double-billed as the lead-in to Judas Priest's British Steel tour. The ample lineup of dueling guitarists Reb Beach and Doug Aldrich, drummer Chris Frazier, bassist Uriah Duffy, and keyboardist Timothy Drury were in fine form. Of course, star attraction and lead singer David Coverdale was not too shabby himself, looking all the rock star front man at age 57.

The setlist was built to please, consisting entirely of mega-hits from their 30 plus year history, although only one tune, 2008's "Lay Down Your Love", was the only one younger than ten years old. The bulk of the tunes were vintage mid-80s to 90s hits, so the question on everyone's mind seemed to be if they could still do them justice. The answer is mostly yes.

The music was right on. Beach and Aldrich were sharp and the rocking was tight, although I was mixed on the mid-set, duo guitar solos. They were interesting enough but seemed to be inserted mainly to give the other band mates a breather. It might have been a better use of that time to throw in one or two of the many other hits we didn't get to hear like, oh I don't know, "Slide It In" or "Judgment Day" or "Walking In the Shadow of the Blues" (just insert your own favorites here). Duffy and Frazier's rhythm was rock solid, and Drury's keys filled out the sound nicely.

Coverdale's vocals were good, but he has certainly lost some of the ability to scream out the higher notes. In those instances what you get is a course, raspy croak, though a loud and energetic one. I'll give him an A for effort. He is still the ultimate front man, with the hair, dress, mic stand swinging, and posing to go along with the attitude. He smiles a lot too, so he's obviously enjoying himself up there. All in all they were better than I expected. My personal favorites were "Here I Go Again" and "Still of the Night". Guess they saved the best for last as these were the final two songs.

I would certainly go see them again, especially on this tour with Priest. If they were to do their own tour though, I would certainly check the setlist before making the financial commitment. You'd certainly want a considerably longer and tastier setlist for the money, especially if you are more than a casual Whitesnake fan.